Sunday, July 27, 2008

Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox is the sixth installment of the Artemis Fowl series. It is 432 pages, and is written by the talented writer from Ireland, EoinColfer. (Warning: Spoilers ahead!)

Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox begins with what seems to be a relatively simple plot. (Warning Again: Massive Spoilers Ahead!) Artemis' mother is extremely ill, so Artemis calls on Holly Short and the demon No1 for help. Holly concludes from Angeline's (Artemis' Mother's) symptoms that she has Spelltropy, a terrible disease which leads to inevitable death. The only known cure is the silky sifaka lemur, which is now extinct because Artemis had sold the last of its kind to a group known as "The Extinctionists" 8 years earlier.

Holly and Artemis decide, with the help of No1 and Foaly, to travel back in time 8 years to retrieve the lemur, in order to cure Artemis' mother. Artemis and Holly are successfully transported back 8 years by No1, but they have only 3 days to return with the lemur or No1 will not be able to bring them back to their time.

Holly and Artemis encounter Mulch Diggums upon arriving 8 years previous to their time. With the help of their new ally, Artemis Fowl and Holly break into the lemur's housing, but Artemis is injured. Holly heals Artemis, and kisses him.

The lemur escapes and the younger Artemis Fowl gets a hold of it and flies to Morocco to sell it to Dr. Kronski, the leader of The Extinctionists. With some difficulty, Captain Short and the older Artemis manage to get the lemur back. While doing this, however, Holly is captured and sold to Kronski in place of the lemur.

The older Artemis manages to rescue Holly, but is thrown into a pit of fire in the process. The fire turns out to be holographic, and Holly realizes that Kronski has been mesmerized by a fairy or pixie.

Artemis is now in Opal Koboi's clutches. Opal doesn't know who Artemis is, since the Artemis in this time is unaware of the fairy's existence. Artemis, on the other hand, knows exactly who Opal Koboi is. Artemis discovers that Opal has been using all of the supposedly extinct animals' brains to increase her own magical abilities. She needs the lemur to finally become invincible, and be able to travel through time.

Eventually, Artemis Fowl escapes from Koboi's lair, and is picked up by Mulch Diggums and Holly Short, they are flying a junkyLEP shuttle. Now, Holly and Artemis only have a few hours to get back to the time stream entrance, or they'll be stuck in this time forever. Upon arriving at Artemis' house, the younger Artemis is waiting for them. He demands an explanation for all of this. The older Artemis has no choice, so he tells the younger Artemis all about their travel through time, as well as the importance of the Lemur, the evil Opal, etc. Then, he hatches a plan...

Mulch is being captured by Opal has his memory sucked out of him for Koboi to learn from. Holly and Artemis, unaware of this, travel 8 years into the future, back to their appropriate time. Artemis is about to give his mother the "lemur injection" when he discovers that Opal has taken over his mother, and gave her the sickness in the first place.

Holly and No1 cannot help Artemis, because they are trapped by a mesmerized Butler. When Artemis is about to be killed, he reveals that he is actually the 10-year-old Artemis from the past, and that the older Artemis from this time is free from Opal. The older Artemis temporarily stuns Opal's real body, and Holly and No1 are freed. The older Artemis takes himself and the Lemur in a family airplane to distract Opal while the LEP reaches Artemis' house. Opal follows Artemis and the lemur, but the lemur that Artemis brought turns out to be just a decoy, and the LEP have reached Artemis' house and the lemur is safe.

Opal is stopped by Artemis and is buried under a bunch of rubble caused by an undiscovered kraken. When the LEP go looking for her body, however, she cannot be found.

Artemis returns to his home to tell the others of Opal's defeat, when he finds that his mother knows what happened to her. Artemis then realizes that if he hadn't gone back in time, he never would have had any fairy-related adventures, thus Opal never would have touched his mother, and thus she wouldn't have had Spelltropy....as Artemis puts it, its a Time Paradox.

No1 wiped young Artemis' mind of the past day's events and sent him back to his proper time. Upon waking up young Artemis remembers something from a dream, however, fairies. This dream starts Artemis' search for the fairies, thus prompting the entire series of the Artemis Fowl books. So, the future Artemis Fowl indirectly prompted the past Artemis to go searching for fairies...the Time Paradox again.

As you can tell, it is a somewhat confusing book. It is not terribly confusing, though. It is entertaining, witty, and has a lot of heart. You meet some new characters, as well as learn new things about the old characters. During the last few chapters, it is just beautiful how everything falls so perfectly into place. Also, the book makes you think a lot about time travel and its effects.

Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox is an awesome book. I highly recommend that you read it. You may not appreciate it, however, if you haven't read the previous books in the series.

I cannot wait for Colfer's next installment of Artemis Fowl, it is a wonderful universe with truly great characters. Who isn't entertained by a 14-year-old criminal mastermind with an undiscovered fairy world on his side?

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